COVID19 Compliant - Afternoon Fewbie Plus Desert Drive - Long Trek - Dubai to Sharjah - 14 Aug 2021

[Ashok chaturvedi]

@Ale Vallecchijust taking a chance.. 1 drive please WL thank you. 

[Ale Vallecchi]

Dear @salah2u, I see you have signed up for this Saturday's afternoon drive. 

I cannot see your current rank, so I kindly ask you to confirm it, please. As this drive is marked for Fewbie Plus and above, I am afraid you may not be able to join, if you are not Fewbie Plus 

Thanks for your prompt reply. 

[salah2u]

Dear Ale, 

yeah I realized the ranking today, I need to undo my attendance as I only joined couple of days ago.

 

Regards,

 

[Ale Vallecchi]

Dear Desertnauts,

I'll fill you in on tomorrow's PM drive in the same way I'd like to manage our long trek: fast !!

Meeting point - see below, as well as in the drive's post:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/JmktsxXrpfie3SgLA

WARNING: the meeting point is a bit tricky to find, when following Google Maps. I'll try to explain better. From Qudra's Last Exit, please take the road to Bab al Shams Resort (first right at the Qudra roundabout, coming from Dubai). Upon reaching the first roundabout, take the second exit, to reach this point:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/oeXzNh6zySDJZ7Hf9

Once passed the bike track, please reach the meeting point by taking a right dirt track through the sabkha, until you reach a construction camp, where I will be parked. In case of need, please text me on +971.522163122.

Planned itinerary - entering from northern Qudra and exiting at Murqab (Inshallah)

Meeting time - 3:00PM (not later, please, as we are hoping to cover as much ground as possible, racing against the sunset)

Convoy Order - as below:

@Lakshmi Narasimhan will be in SL

@Nihal17 at #3

@Alain Canivet-Abikhalil #4

@Sunil Mathew at #5

@MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ will be Center Forward

@Chinthaka Ruwan will follow at #7

@Ashok chaturvedi at #8

@Humayun Ghias will be #9

@Russ #10

@Darren Brooke at #11

@Christian Andras will Sweep the convoy.

See you tomorrow, at 3:00 PM. Have a great Friday.

[Nihal17]

Hi Ale ,Apologies for last min back out , got an urgent situation at work where i need to attend , See you for the next drive !!!

 

 

[MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ]

21 hours ago, Ale Vallecchi said:

Dear Desertnauts,

I'll fill you in on tomorrow's PM drive in the same way I'd like to manage our long trek: fast !!

Meeting point - see below, as well as in the drive's post:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/JmktsxXrpfie3SgLA

WARNING: the meeting point is a bit tricky to find, when following Google Maps. I'll try to explain better. From Qudra's Last Exit, please take the road to Bab al Shams Resort (first right at the Qudra roundabout, coming from Dubai). Upon reaching the first roundabout, take the second exit, to reach this point:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/oeXzNh6zySDJZ7Hf9

Once passed the bike track, please reach the meeting point by taking a right dirt track through the sabkha, until you reach a construction camp, where I will be parked. In case of need, please text me on +971.522163122.

Planned itinerary - entering from northern Qudra and exiting at Murqab (Inshallah)

Meeting time - 3:00PM (not later, please, as we are hoping to cover as much ground as possible, racing against the sunset)

Convoy Order - as below:

@Lakshmi Narasimhan will be in SL

@Nihal17 at #3

@Alain Canivet-Abikhalil #4

@Sunil Mathew at #5

@MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ will be Center Forward

@Chinthaka Ruwan will follow at #7

@Ashok chaturvedi at #8

@Humayun Ghias will be #9

@Russ #10

@Darren Brooke at #11

@Christian Andras will Sweep the convoy.

See you tomorrow, at 3:00 PM. Have a great Friday.

 

[Sunil Mathew]

Thank you @Ale Vallecchi for the really looooooooooooo...ng drive, covering 80+ km in 4 hours or so. Having a drive in the morning same day, i should say it was a bit of an exertion for me, and a test of my concentration skills, given the abundance of technical areas we did.

I was a bit delayed to reach the meeting point as i was planning on reaching just in time, and not earlier, to catch maximum rest after the morning drive. I knew it was pushing myself, but with the family away in hometown , and nothing else to do, i decided to give it a shot - back to back drives on same day, and needless to say, i did not drop dead and lived to tell the story!! 🙂

Some tricky crossings, soft sand bowls, lot of ridge rides , all blended into the "long trek" kilometre crunch!! 

I am not sure if the convoy of @Lakshmi Narasimhan , @Alain Canivet-Abikhalil, myself, @Chinthaka Ruwan, @Ashok chaturvedi, @Humayun Ghias, @Russ, @Darren Brooke  with the support of @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ and @Christian Andras finally enabled @Ale Vallecchi to do justice to the "Dubai-Sharjah" trek. Did we reach Faqa/sharjah border ? 

and speaking of stats, with this drive i have crossed 1500 Km in the desert - a personal milestone albeit a small one!!!

See you all (or at least some of you 😉) next week!!

[Humayun Ghias]

Thank you @Ale Vallecchifor yet another amazing drive. It seemed we were ridge riding for miles!

Thank you @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQfor all your help, the convoy kept you busy at times!

Appreciate all the support from @Christian Andrasand @Lakshmi Narasimhan

Was great seeing all of you again, congratulations to @Russon IM promotion! Let us know how different the drives are!

Looking forward to seeing you all again 

 

[Ale Vallecchi]

The Long Trek - Drive Report

"Although the road is never ending, take a step and keep walking. Do not look fearfully into the distance" - Rumi

We set off from Northern Qudra with the notion that our road would be long, would be hard, and that there would be no going back (to paraphrase W.Churchill 😅). The first half of the drive was on well known ground, from "the big farm off the roundabout on Bab al Shams road" all the way to the long range dunes beyond the bike track, and from there eastward to cross the tarmac close to Solar Park. The driving was smooth, in varied terrain (from long range dunes to technical area, deep bowls, then the lower red dunes between the bike track and the pylons). Virtually no issues slowed us down, and we managed to complete the first segment in 1:27 hours. The second segment of the drive took us, once again, through a different part of Lisaili, and eventually in the direction of Murqab, where we exited. All my latest drives in Lisaili have been on different tracks, always looking for new locations, progressively going more and more east, farther and farther away from the pylons. This is where the terrain keeps offering long range dune, with the addition of small sabkhas, tighter, newer formations, and several areas with groups of trees. It was certainly the more challenging part of the drive. Nonetheless, save a few stucks (as I reminded, sometimes it's better to exit a ridge - carefully - rather than trying to over-power it, as this may not always work, leading do getting crested), we managed to reach our ultimate goal, Murqab's tall dunes, just in time to see the sun dipping below the haze, on the horizon. 

Not only we arrived just in time, but we also reached the goal of this Long Trek drive - to equal or better the longest Fewbie drive I had done in the past (with the mark placed at 82 Km). Indeed, we covered 83.2 Km, in exactly 3 hours of driving (3:54 hours including the stops), at an average moving speed of 28 Km/h (21 Km/h total).

I have to admit that the drive proved to be more complex and full of diversity than I expected. The convoy proved to be great, managing all possible situations, solving the stucks and few refusals with speed and competence, and keeping the concentration for the whole drive (as testified by the many spells of silence that indicated a convoy enthralled with the driving). In fact, this time the whole convoy's attention and concentration was the greatest asset on display.

Great job by @Lakshmi Narasimhan in Second Lead, tireless support by @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ at Center Forward, and a vigilant Sweep by @Christian Andras (your new tire set up, finally giving you peace of mind). the rest of the convoy - @Alain Canivet-Abikhalil, @Sunil Mathew, @Chinthaka Ruwan, @Ashok chaturvedi, @Humayun Ghias, @Russ and @Darren Brooke - went through the drive without a hic-up, completing it with great poise and perfect driving.

Thanks a lot to all for the great afternoon. Enjoy the rest of the week, and hope to see you soon again.